The Crushed Rival
by Amity-For-Infiniti
Summary: After becoming a star at performing and competing, Serena travels to Kanto to get back on good terms with Ash, but as she travels through Kanto, she meets people who make her see that Ash isn't all there is to her life, and that there may be a new special someone waiting for her... ( Serena Afterstory/Pokemon Short Story )
1. Maybe

**This is a work of _fan_ fiction. Any and all relation to real-life people or pokemon, dead or alive or great seal, is ****_purely_** **coincidental.**

 **Also, yes, the title of this story is a pun in itself for the ship represented here.**

* * *

It was long since Ash had left for Kanto yet again. Serena had travelled to Hoenn in hopes of being able to compete in the competitions there. She met many wondrous people, such as a girl named May Maple, a boy named Drew Hayden, and a not-so-nice boy named Harvey Lu. But now that she was a star at Pokemon competitions, she wondered to herself, if she went back to Ash, would he still take her? Even after what happened before he left? Even after that awkward kiss they shared before she went down the escalator?

She had made up her mind. She would travel to Kanto to chase after the boy she loved. After all, she had nothing else left to do. She was finished chasing after her dream. She was already a shooting star, now she just needed someone to wish upon her. Perhaps that someone could be Ash... She smiled at the thought as she put her luggage on the luggage carrier.

* * *

After arriving in Kanto, she knew exactly where to go next. She would have to travel back to Pallet Town, where Ash lives. She knew this because, well, he told her so. But where exactly would she start off? There were so many towns and cities in Kanto, much like Kalos and Hoenn, but she had no clue where she would begin. She was currently in Cerulean City, which is known for their water pokemon. The gym leaders here were all sisters, and also liked to put on shows when they aren't battling.

"Maybe I could find a ride to Pallet Town instead..." She muttered to herself. "Maybe..."

She was completely lost in a whole new setting. She had no clue where to go next or where to begin or where to end. Scattered chatter could be heard around her, and her head was metaphorically spinning as her eyes darted from one unfamiliar face to the next. There were so many different kinds of trainer and people. There was a boy with messy brown hair tucked into a red cap, a girl with long golden hair concealed by a strawhat, a boy with spiky auburn hair, a girl with long black hair and blue eyes, and so many more countless others.

"Excuse me, but are you lost?" A feminine voice asked.

Serena looked up to see a girl. She had fiery orange hair tied into a side ponytail and emerald green eyes. She wore a dark red tank top under a pale yellow jacket and blue shorts.

"Umm, yes, I am." Serena responds.

The girl smiles. "Oh, well that's alright! I'm Misty, Misty Waterflower!"

"Misty... Waterflower?" The name rang a bell in Serena's head, and she was sure she had heard of the girl from _somewhere._ "Do I... know you?"

"Uhm, I don't think so... But you may recognize me because me and my sisters are the gym leaders here in Cerulean!" Misty says with a cheerful voice.

"Oh." That was why. "But wait, aren't there only three sisters?"

"Eh, they like to pretend I'm a boy most of the time." Misty says with a frown. "Probably because I never wanted to be some supermodel-looking girl like them."

"Ohh, so you have your own dreams?" Serena asks.

Misty shrugs. "Well, I guess you could say that..."

"Huh? You guess?"

"Well, actually, I wanted to be the best water-type master! So me and two other kids joined up and began exploring all the regions together but eventually I had to come back to take care of the gym..." She made it sound so happy at first, until she sighed sadly.

"Oh, you must have been very close friends with them.." Serena says. "I had to leave my friends as well."

"Heh, friends... that's all we'll ever be..." Misty looks up at Serena and smiles. "Ah, sorry for going on and on about myself like that. I can do that sometimes! Haha."

"No, it's fine!" Serena assures her.

"Soo, where you heading?"

Serena takes a while to think, then she remembers why she even came in the first place. "I'm going to Pallet Town. You see, a _friend_ of mines lives there, and I felt bad about how I left it off..."

"Hmm, I had a friend in Pallet Town. Heh, friend..." Misty says. "Well, to get there you just have to take a shortcut through Mt. Moon into Pewter City. After that, you just go through Viridian Forest, end up in Viridian City. From then on you just got Route One and bam! You're in Pallet." Misty gives a wink.

"Thanks, Misty." Serena was about to say her farewells and leave, but...

"H-Hey, Serena, can you do me a favor?" Misty asks. Serena nods. "I-If you meet someone with messy black hair and a red cap with a pokeball on it, tell him Misty says hi, alright?"

That description... sounded awfully close to someone she knew. But regardless, Serena smiled. "Of course I will, Misty."

"Thanks. Good luck." Misty says.

"Bye, Misty."

* * *

After getting lost for quite some time, Serena finally ended up at the entrance to a cave of sorts. In front of the entrance was a wooden sign that read:

 **Mt. Moon - Route 3**

Serena smiled. "Finally..." She reached down, feeling for her pokeballs. There was Sylveon, Braxion, Pancham, and her newly-received Wingull, which was giving to her by May as a parting gift. She was glad to have them with her. She would need them to reach Ash.

She entered the cave with a surge of determination. Nothing could get in her way now that she had set her mind on it. She began moving forward. Left, right, left, right. Eventually, she would be outta here. Or at least that's what she thought...

It felt like someone took the sun and hid it away. She squinted her eyes in the inky darkness, unable to see. She turned around, and saw the corner she had turned lit by the light shining into the entrance. Lines filled her vision as her eyes tried to adjust to the new darkness. "Urghh, good thing I have my flashlight..." She unzipped her bag she had brought with her and felt around for the cool metal.

Finally finding it, she gripped it in her hands and pulled it out of her bag. Clicking it on, her surroundings began to light up. "Phew..." She sighed in relief. She continued forward. Right, left, right, left.

Soon enough she would reach Pewter City and be a step closer to her goal. She began to think what would happen after she gets back on good terms with Ash, and maybe even start a real relationsuip with him. Maybe they'd travel the regions together, just the two of them this time. Maybe they'd stay in Pallet together, happy as can be. Maybe they'd continue where Ash last left off. It was a ton of maybe's, but it was enough for her to smile and get her hopes up. Maybe everything really would be alright. Maybe... just maybe...

* * *

 **Phew! Finally done with the first chapter! Now you all may be thinking: Yo, what ship is this if Ash is at Alola or whateva? Honestly, I have the main ships planned out already, lol. It's just the path to those ships that I need to plan out now. Anyways, I hope you all liked this!**


	2. Rock Hard

**To thor94, come on man, you shouldn't say things like that unless you know for sure! After all, the possiblites are only as endless as your imagination! Your imagination must be pretty small to think that... To Guest 1, well, I can't exactly answer that question without spoiling future chapters... To lucienhalf58, knowing me this story will probably go into the recovery section of publish! But I'm all honestly, thanks xD. Guest 2, ehehehe...**

Chapter Two - Rock Hard

After a surprisingly uneventful journey through Mt. Moon, Serena finally arrived at Pewter City. It was much like Cerulean, big and full of life. She was admiring the scenery when something hit her. The reason why she was even her was Ash... She sighed, and looked around. She also realized something else: she had no clue where to go next.

She decided to do the only thing she could, which was asking for help. "Umm, excuse me, but do you know where Viridian Forest is?" She asks, tapping the shoulder of a boy with spiky auburn brown hair and fair skin.

He turned around. "Hm?" He had deep green eyes and wore a black jacket and pants. "You need something from me?" He asks smoothly. ( wowhelookslikemakotobutactslike- )

"O-Oh, yes..." She smiles shyly, then softly mutters, "Um, actually, I just asked you..."

"Huh? Oh, guess I never heard." He shrugs as if it was nothing.

Serena frowned at his arrogance. "Hmph! What I was asking was if you knew where Viridian City was..." She says.

"Oh, Viridian City?" He looks over at a building that obviously wasn't a forest.

"..."

"No, seriously, it's that way!" He says, his eyes sparkling with mischief. God, she wanted to slap him so badly! "Okay, but in all seriosness, just around that corner is Viridian Forest. Go through there and you'll be in Viridian City in about a day. You're probably one of those trainers who wanna beat the Indigo League, so let me give you some advi-"

"Umm, indigo league?" Serena tilts her head in confusion.

The boy scratches the back of his neck. "Ya know, the Pokemon League... You need eight badges to enter..."

"The League? I'm not here for that." She smiles. "I'm here to see a friend who lives in Pallet Town!"

"Pallet...Town? Oh, I live there!" His confusion was wiped away. "Which friend? I may know him or her."

"Ash Ketchum?"

The boy chuckles. "You mean Ashy-boy? Heh, yeah, I _definitely_ know him."

Serena's eyes lit up. "Y-You do...?"

"Yeah. We go wayyy back!" He says. "Hey, you know, I was heading back to Pallet to deliver something to my Grandpa. I can go take you there.."

"You will?" He nods. "Wow! Thanks so much!"

"Wait, but first, what's your name?" The boy asks. "Mines is Gary Oak."

"Nice to meet you, Gary! I'm Serena Yvonne!" She holds out her hand.

He shakes it. "Nice to meet you, Serena."

"So, when can we go...?"

Gary shrugs. "I need to pick up the reports. Feel free to wander and meet back up with me here, alright? It's a smaller city than the others, so you shouldn't get too lost.."

Serena nods. "O-Okay..." She watches as he walks into a nearby building, then she twirls. No matter how long it would take, even if a day or more, she needed to do this. For herself and for Ash. If he would reject her love, then they'd could still be friends, after all! It was not the endof the world.

"Whoa, nice dancing!" A voice says from somewhere. She looks to see a tan man with black hair and, well, she couldn't exactly describe his eyes because, well, he had _none_!

"E-Eh?" Serena paused her dancing. "A-Are you talking to me?"

"Oh, yeah. I was..." The man says. "But just ignore me! I'll be off to the gym now, have a nice day ma'am!" He dismissively waves his hand, then abruptly leaves.

"That was...sudden..." Serena turns back around to see the door to the building swing open, and then Gary walking out. It swung close behind him, and he waves over.

"I got the reports!" He cheers. "We can leave now."

"Yay! I mean, that's great..." Serena chuckles. She couldn't seem too happy, or else he might think she was a psychopath or something... which she _totally_ wasn't, by the way...

"Come on, let's go." He gestures for her to follow, and she does. And sure enough, they turned the corner, and there it was. A sign that read: _Viridian Forest - Route 2._ Seriously, what was with all these routes and stuff to get to where you wanted to go!?

* * *

"Brock, why do you do this To yourself?" A high-pitched voice asks.

"What do you mean?" Brock asks.

"Why do you always have to flirt with Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny?" The voice asks. "I mean, you do realize they don't like you, right?"

Brock almost falls backwards. "H-Hey! What do you mean? Of course they like me, Ash! Cause I'm Brock the Rock! Oh, by the way, forgot to ask, and dunno how I forgot, but how was the rest of your trip to Alola?"

Ash shrugs. "It was alright. Me and the group travelled to all the islands, and got to see possible glimpses of the legendaries, which is once-in-a-lifetime, and had a lot of fun at the beaches!"

"Oh, cool. Then again, it's like your a legendary Pokemon magnet. For some reason, you've seen just about them all..." Brock mutters. "On the other hand, I'm a legendary chick magnet, heheh..."

"Keep telling yourself that, Brock, keep telling yourself that..."

* * *

 **My, my! This chapter is far too short! Being absent for the whole second-to-last school week on all days except Tuesday has not helped at all with this story, I'm sorry. It's just that for some reason my parents wanna get divorced over an Arizona Iced Tea can, my dad forgot where he put the wire, we had to buy new wires for me and my dad, and I have been spending time recording my playthroughs then posting them on YouTube. Eek! Ack! Bleh!**


	3. The Forest of Mixed Feelings

**Ah, it seems you all have read my plan for the story! And yes, my parents are no longer getting divorced over iced tea after realizing how dumb that was, lol. They fight over the dumbest things, like if one of them keeps a dollar worth of change after shopping. Anyways, enough of my life, and more of the story.** **Toll Free Call!**

"Eek! This forest is full of bugs!" Serena says, shaking her head violently.

"And you're full of stupidity." Gary smirks. "What else would you expect from a forest?"

Serena pouted. "Well, sheesh. There's no need to be so rude bout it..."

"I'm not being rude. I'm being reasonable, unlike you." He keeps walking, twigs snapping and leaves rustling under his foot.

Pushing past a stray branch of leaves, Serena stumbles to follow the annoying brunette. What a pain, having to get stuck with him... If only he was as nice as he had seemed in Pewter. Why'd she fall for that facade anyways? He was as a good an actor as she was...

"Soo, are we almost there yet?" He stopped dead in his tracks, turned around, and gave her that 'say one more word and you're dead' look.

"From what I can tell, _NO_ , we are _NOT_ almost there yet!" He turns back around and continues to storm off in one direction: forward.

They had been doing this for a while now... Serena had honestly began to regret deciding to see Ash at a time like this. What if he didn't want to see her? What if he ran off with some other girl? What if he-

"What are you doing?"

That's when Serena realized she was grimacing, and holding her head with one hand as she walked after Gary. "H-Huh? Sh-Shut up and move it along, pretty boy!"

"Pretty boy, huh? Nice nickname." He grinned. It was an evil, sinister grin...

"Asshole..." She muttered under her breath. Serena wasn't one to cuss often, much less at all, but with how much of a douche he was being, she felt it necessary. I mean, come on, she was _thirteen_ -years old. She can swear at least on occasion... Right?

"Well, you're a bi-"

"Keep walking, dbag. Just. Keep. Walking."

* * *

After arguing for quite the while, the day had reached its end and the pair were setting up camp, avoiding all eye contact as much as possible.

"Hey, I think-"

"Shut up. Just please shut up." Gary groans, shifting in his sleeping bag. "I'm trying to sleep here, so if you could maybe zip it _real_ tight, that'd be nice."

"Back at ya, Ga _y_ ry."

"You dizzy blonde."

"Hell's Spawn."

"Bimbo."

"Devilsend."

"Yandere."

"Douche."

"Psycho."

"Big ego."

"Smol girl."

"Are you sexually harrasing me?"

"So its alright for a man to be sexually harrassed but not a woman? Sexism."

"Shut up." Serena turned her back to Gary.

"Fine." Gary turn his back to Serena.

They lay there, in their sleeping bags, backs turned to one another after viciously calling one another crude and unpleasant names. How pathetic... It didn't look like their relationsip would get any better, either. That was sad... Real sad.

* * *

Just like that, they were back on the road. "Ooh, what's that one?" Serena asks enthusiastically, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Ga _y_ ry smirks. "That's a caterpie. Seriously, you don't have these in Kalos? Wow, we must be reall different, then..."

"Mhm! We sure are! I like performing and you like, err, whatever you like..."

"You make it sound like pokemon battles are such a bad thing, but don't you performers do tagteam battles or something?" Gary tilts his head back.

"Pfft, its not _as_ violent as what people like you do..." She says with a frown, arms crossed. "You all act like you own the things, like they don't have freedom of their own. And you make them battle their friends, And for what? Badges? Tch."

"Don't worry, once I teach you the basics, you'll end up being just like me."

"Believe me when I say, no one is as arrogant as you. Even a day with Miette is like a tropical paradise vacation compared to being stuck alone with someone like you..."

"I may be arrogant, but I'm not as bad as Ashy-boy." Gary chuckles.

"Ash..?" Serena's eyes twitched, and her hands ball into fists. "He's a Prince compared to you. Maybe even more..."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, sure." He rolls his eyes. "You're just biased because you probably traveled in Kalos with Ash instead of me."

"If I had travelled with you, I would have murdered you, then commit suicide..." She mutters, glaring at the back of his fat head.

"But...?"

"But what?"

"Let's say you have to marry either me or Ash. Be honest. Who would you chose?" Gary asked, his shoulders and arms raised in a carefree motion as he turned to Serena.

She tried not to get too excited, but answered instantly. "Ash! Err, Ash."

Gary's eyes widen, and his mouth hung open as he stared her up and down with shock. "What! Seriously? Ash Ketchum over me!?"

She crossed her arms, swung her hips to one side, and nodded. It looked really cool, like out of an anime or manga or cartoon. "Yup. I'd choose Ash over you in a heartbeat."

"Wow, I never thought it possibly for anyone to hate me... Well, except Misty, of course." Gary laughed. "That girl sure was a fiery redhead. I think she may have had a crush on Ash, too. Huh, that's interesting..."

"M-Misty? Misty Waterflower?" Serena winced. "Her?"

"Yeah, why, you know her?" Gary asks. It was such a carefree question. Of course Serena knows her, and now, she may never forget her...

"Y-Yeah, I do!" She forces a smile. There were so much mixed feelings. Today was a really weird day. It had been weird since she decided to visit Kanto, in fact.

He shrugs. "Eh. Anyways, I think we're here in Viridian..." He moves aside to let her see, and sure enough, there's the entrance to Viridian City.

"Thanks, Gary!" Serena pats his shoulder, then rushes ahead.

"H-Hey, wait!" He groans, and chases after her.

 **Chapter complete! There is mostly Gary and Serena relationship development in this chapter, as well as more mixed feelings and weak retorts from Serena! Bout time Ga _y_ ry shown his true colors, ehehe... Anyways, hope you all enjoyed, and sorry I haven't been able to update for a short while!** **Question: Who is your favorite companion of Ash? If you can't decide, then list your three most favorite instead!**


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